Hannah Sawyer (Kinsella Universe Book 3), page 13
Squadron organization was a little further along. Each squadron would have a full lieutenant or higher commanding, a lieutenant as executive officer and another lieutenant functioning as the operations officer. Everybody was to fly and there were eighteen other pilots to round out the flying personnel.
Originally the concept had been to have pairs of pilots flying in support of each other. That had been modified and stood at elements of three. Each element had an identified “element leader” with two supporting pilots.
Hannah had been surprised that they were in the Second Squadron, not so much for herself, but for Donna. Donna had explained it, though, and Hannah understood. There was a First Squadron, which was the Wing Commander and the Wing Commander’s staff, who numbered fifteen in total. They were considered to be the last ditch reserve and would only fly if there were no choice.
“Second Squadron,” Donna had said proudly, “we’re the lead squadron. The squadron everyone else will look up to!”
Donna Merriweather had no time for a personal life, personal friends or anything else personal. She was all business, all the time.
Donna had been allowed to choose her executive officer, and she picked a man named James Harlan. He had been a Fleet Aloft Master Chief before the war, flying shuttles for admirals. He too had been to the quickie school with Hannah and Donna and many of the rest, even if he was nearly twice Hannah or Donna’s age.
When they reported for the meeting, there were a couple dozen people in the front of the compartment. Captain Bachman was there, so was Ernesto Sanchez and a lot of other officers, both junior and senior. More importantly, there were a dozen other captains and six admirals, running from two stars on their sleeves to two men who had five.
There were two conference tables pushed together with all the stars and stripes, then four very long rows of tables aligned perpendicular to the set in front, where the squadron officers were to stand. With all of the rank in the front of the room everyone came in, found their place and stood at attention, without prompting.
One of the two five star admirals nodded to Light Huygeens, who glanced at the room and nodded back; everyone was present.
The admiral moved to a podium in the center of the long table. “I call this planning meeting to order. I am Admiral of the Fleet Nagoya.”
The man who commanded the Fleet! All of it! Hannah was stunned. It was one thing to have met Trudy Swenson, who’d held the rank once upon a time, but this was the man who led the entire war!
“Ernie Fletcher and I came along for the ride when we heard about this brief. Both of us heard something similar last week, but we find we still have questions. So, like the proverbial bad penny, we’ve turned up again.”
He turned to the only woman admiral, the one with two stars. “Roberta, I turn this meeting over to you.”
“Aye aye, Admiral,” the rear admiral who commanded Rome said.
She turned to the rest of them. “I am Roberta Kinney, I have been tasked to command the Rome deployment. I will fly my flag in Rome.”
She turned to her left and motioned to a three star admiral. “We’ll begin this brief with Vice Admiral Joseph, Deputy Chief of Staff for Intelligence.”
The intelligence admiral turned to the roomful of officers still standing. “I will give you leave to sit. I give none of you leave to speak. There will be a question and answer period at the end of the brief. Contain yourselves until then. Seats, people.”
Everyone sat down with alacrity. Hannah looked over the officers in the front of the room. She didn’t know very many of them, beyond Captain Bachman, Ernesto and Light Huygeens. One woman sitting at the head table she recognized, but Hannah didn’t understand what the woman was doing at a meeting like this, sitting where she was. Before the war, she had been a news anchorwoman.
The vice admiral moved to the podium. “I am David Joseph, Deputy for Intelligence. My portion of the brief has two sections, first a summary of the war to date, followed by a very short discussion of noted enemy tactics.
“In physics,” the admiral began, “the concept of simultaneity is slippery. In the Federation as it stood on the day the current conflict commenced, that cubed, because of communication lag. Gandalf, the first reported attack, is seventy-four light years from Earth. To get there from here with a reasonable expectation of arriving takes ten weeks or so. A very fast ship, with well-tuned fans, a crew on their toes and a Chief Engineer on top of the game -- you can get there in nine weeks.
“Suffice it to say, we are still working out the chronology of the attacks. Here is what we think they look like.”
A large three-dimensional chart of the Federation appeared in the air, next to the admiral. He pointed out Gandalf, a blue dot. “Here is Gandalf, so far as we can tell it was actually the third attack. We have noted these additional attacks we think preceded it.”
Gandalf blinked twice, and then started blinking red. Two more blue stars also began to blink, then they too turned red. They were all close to Gandalf.
“Subsequently we noted an attack against Fleet World, here.” A system a third of the way from the periphery to the blue dot in the middle started to blink. “We kept Fleet World.
“Further attacks occurred, our enemy switching to attacks of from three to five ships. We lost quite a few systems and then we kept Tannenbaum. Less than two weeks later, we kept New Helgoland and two days after that, we kept Medina. Ten days later, we kept Snow Dance.”
More stars blinked. The ones that had fought off attacks blinked yellow, the systems destroyed turned red.
“Snow Dance is, in many ways, the most significant battle since Gandalf,” Admiral Joseph told them. “As you can see from the attacks, we believed we were seeing eight distinct axes of attack. Snow Dance was in line to be attacked. By extrapolating from what information we had, we thought that Snow Dance might be either a re-provisioning point, or close to one.
“Resources started thin and they have thinned dramatically since the war started. We started the war with barely one Fleet ship per colony. Now that number has improved, solely because we could not defend all systems and the majority of minimally defended systems have been destroyed.
“We hoped we were right with Snow Dance. Still, the Council and the War Board could not allocate significant resources in its defense. The only ships that could reach there were two frigates and a research vessel, sent out at highly risky power numbers. All three ships survived the trip.
“We were correct in all particulars. Snow Dance was a target, we are now confident it was to be a supply point. Moreover, the alien ships didn’t arrive at once, but in groups, from nearby attacks. In spite of their weakness, the three Fleet ships destroyed twelve major enemy combatants including what we think was an enemy command and control vessel, plus two extremely large ships that were likely supply vessels.
“No subsequent attacks have been noted along one of the lines of attack.”
There were muted sounds, mostly nods of approval.
“Subsequent analysis shows that Starfarer’s Dream, the sole Fleet ship engaged at Tannenbaum and one of six at New Helgoland, almost certainly destroyed the components of two more attack forces. There were other defeated attacks in the area and while we saw no supply ships, there have been no further attacks along that line since New Helgoland.
“We redoubled our analysis, sending additional ships to reinforce planets thought to be in the path of attacks. We lost New Cairo, and it’s difficult to call the death of a billion people a victory, but it may be the turning point of the early war. Only a handful of enemy ships made it away from New Cairo. We have decided that what attacked the planet was the remnants of the remaining attack groups.
“Since New Cairo, there have been no new attacks on the Federation.”
“Jesus God!” Donna muttered under her breath, next to Hannah.
Hannah could only nod.
“Next,” Admiral Joseph said, “a very short discussion of enemy tactics.
“To put it quite simply, we have no idea what their tactics are. They do not make rational sense. None, not even a little. If you look at a single action, there is some logic if they are winning; if they are losing there is no logic.
“The numbers don’t add up. At Gandalf, nearly a hundred of their ships engaged four of ours. We had one ship knocked out, but the crew, those who survived, were rescued. Those four ships had twenty-two confirmed kills in the battle.
“At Snow Dance, a research ship and two frigates went against twelve major ships and went twelve and zero.
“Starfarer’s Dream, a freighter, went four and zero, armed with exactly one laser. That was in the course of two battles, one of which they were the only ship to engage the four attacking ships. A corvette had been in-system on Paul Revere -- they correctly jumped away. As you’ve no doubt been told, it appears as though the aliens can track our ships on High Fan. One of the attackers vanished, possibly in pursuit of our corvette.
“Starfarer’s Dream knocked out two of the remaining ships and the last fled the battle. At New Helgoland, six aliens attacked the system held by six of our ships, including Starfarer’s Dream. A slam-dunk for us, you’d think. Instead, we lost two ships and a third was so badly damaged that it’s junk now. One alien survivor left the New Helgoland system. Two Fleet cruisers got one each and the damaged cruiser got one alien. Starfarer’s Dream got the other two.
“It passes all understanding how properly armed and manned cruisers can do so poorly at even odds. And ships like Starfarer’s Dream, the Donner and Blitzen, the two frigates at Snow Dance, and Nihon, can do so well at odds that a rational person would think suicidal.
“Our enemies initially attacked with, we believe, two groups of a hundred plus ships each. We believe those groups were leap-frogging as they attacked systems, first one, and then another. We believe that this was to speed replenishment of the attack wave. At the same time, there was obviously a plan to launch a surprise attack against Fleet World, the second-largest Fleet base in the Federation, if someone escaped an attack. Our ships at Fleet World were outnumbered by more than two to one. We lost a third of ours and kept the planet, they lost half and withdrew.
“This is the sort of thing that drives intelligence officers to drink. All of our analysis at this point has reached the conclusion that we can’t explain the observations we’ve made.” Admiral Joseph bowed towards Admirals Nagoya and Fletcher. “As much as certain parties wish we could.”
Hannah remembered the report she’d done for Trudy Swenson a lifetime before. No wait, a little less than five months before! She’d looked at the possible technologies that could explain what certainly appeared to confirm that their enemies could detect ships under High Fan. These numbers had been right there in all of the reports, she’d not noticed!
Admiral Joseph continued, “Our enemy attacks with the same basic plan each time. They seem to know whether or not there are defenders present; they seem to know the location of vessels under fan outside the fan well. They go for the ships first, outside the fan well. Then they go for ships inside the fan well. If those ships are Fleet ships, they fight until either they win or they lose. After all defending ships have been destroyed they go after large infrastructure targets, particularly asteroid belt targets... they seem to understand that those are where our manufacturing takes place. Finally, after everything else is gone, they attack the planet and destroy it.
“Ships, industrial infrastructure, then people. It’s not a very pretty situation.”
After he finished his part of the briefing, there was a very short question and answer period, but everyone seemed to recognize the futility of asking questions when some of the best and the brightest in the Federation hadn’t made any headway against against the intractable problems.
Admiral Kinney stood up again. “Next, we have Captain Lemain, captain of the cruiser Shenandoah.”
One of the captains stood and moved to the podium.
“I am Captain Curtiss Lemain. Before the war, I was a survey captain. I had just returned to Maunalua from a deployment, two days before Fenris came in from Fleet World with word of the attacks.
“I was given a new ship, a cruiser instead of a survey ship. I was, however, given a survey mission. Even though at that point only a few attacks had been noted, it did give us a starting point. Shenandoah and two other cruisers were dispatched into the region beyond Gandalf to attempt to detect enemy-held planets.”
Captain Lemain gestured at the audience. “I understand that many of you are quickie ensigns, and now some of you are already lieutenants. In that case, you will understand the plight of my assistant intelligence officer. You had ninety days to learn your duties. Six hours after Fenris orbited Earth, Rachael Ferris left her job as a news anchor for Sat News and lifted aboard Shenandoah for our deployment into the expected battle region two hours later.”
Hannah contemplated that. Actually, when you thought about it, it might have been easier. There would have been no time to take counsel of your fears, just a long trip to come to grips with her job.
“Aboard Shenandoah, I had only the most basic of instructions. Go to a region of space; search for whoever or whatever it is that are blowing up our planets.
“I called in my navigator and told him to have his crew look over the star maps for the area ahead of us and come up with a survey plan.”
Around her, Hannah could see the more experienced officers nodding.
“I decided that I needed more input. I ordered my sensor department to form a team and to come up with a plan as well. Since my intelligence department unexpectedly had two officers, I commanded my intelligence head to form two further study groups. One led by my I-Branch head with anyone she wished to be on the study team. Finally I wanted a second group, the wildest wild cards she could find.
“The I-branch second team was headed by Lieutenant Commander Rachael Ferris and consisted of the Chief of the Ship and my cousin, an enlisted electronics tech, in intelligence.
“We had weeks to plan. We had four systems we were to warn, per the Paul Revere op plan. We warned two, found another system already alerted and found rubble in the fourth system. I had everyone on Shenandoah look at the recording from that system; it was mandatory.”
He smiled at the audience. Hannah didn’t think it was a very nice smile.
“By now, you probably have some idea of what’s coming. Not the details, because you couldn’t possible know the details unless you were there. I had three plans from three different groups that varied by less than five percent. The same stars, the same sequence.
“Then, there was Lieutenant Commander Ferris’ group. Out of twenty-four systems the other groups had proposed be surveyed, her group listed only two. The first two systems they proposed, for instance, were systems that had already been surveyed, fifty years ago. Both systems have Crazy Ivans, with gas giant planets inside the hydrosphere of their primary. Those gas giants had oxygen moons with hydrospheres around an AU from their primary.
“Not colonizable moons, but moons we could certainly use as bases -- and so, we assume, could our enemies.
“Another point was the other teams called for surveys of all likely systems in our target area. Commander Ferris pointed out that we were looking for a starfaring species, probably the size of our own Federation. We didn’t need to search every system, not even every likely system. Instead, spot checks every fifteen or twenty light years. We increased our mission time by three weeks, but increased our search volume by nearly 40%. Statistical analysis shows that if we had done the same sort of survey inside the Federation we’d have had a 95% chance of finding a colony.
“We found no evidence of intelligent life in the systems we visited, nor that there ever had been any.
“On our return, Commander Ferris, it turned out, was still meeting with her group. A slight detour, she said, would put us in a tight cluster of F and G stars, about a week out of our way, outside our assigned survey area. She didn’t think it likely that aliens could be there, as there was a rift about forty light years wide beyond that grouping, without any stars at all.
“We spent the two weeks and came up empty of hostile aliens once again. We did find a system with two habitable Earth-class planets and three systems with one each.”
“Thank you, Captain Lemain,” Admiral Kinney told him. “Captain Bachman.”
Captain Bachman went to the podium and looked at them for a minute. “Earlier, I misspoke to my pilots. I told them how long it would be until we were going to be in action against the enemy. That was because by then, we’d been busy drawing little arrows on star maps like those Admiral Joseph showed you, looking at the courses of the four cruisers dispatched to survey the region and we were confident that we would soon have targets.
“Captain Lemain’s ship did the best. But the simple fact is that while those four ships surveyed nearly a hundred systems, they came up empty. Even Captain Lemain’s and Lieutenant Commander Ferris’ Hail Mary idea didn’t succeed in their primary assigned mission.
“We are 99.9% certain that our enemies have nearly complete astrography of the Federation. We can take a number of things away from that knowledge. They’ve been carefully exploring us for some time -- and they wouldn’t have attacked without two important factors in line. They would have a solid knowledge of the astrography of the entire Federation, and were positive that the correlation of forces was entirely in their favor.
“Assuming that, if they understand the entire Federation, then it is possible that the orientation of the attack was a sham. It was a lure to make us spend resources as we did, trying to track the lines of attack back to places they are not.
“We were snookered,” Captain Bachman said grimly. “Purely and simply, we were snookered. The enemy does things we don’t fathom, but this is something we can get our own claws or mandibles on.”
There were chuckles around the room.
“They tricked us. Why did they trick us? I would use Occam’s Razor to explain that: they are afraid of us doing unto them as they are doing unto us.
